A lesson from Rockbridge about the courthouse

On Nov. 5, 2002, Rockbridge County held a referendum asking the public to decide:

Shall the Courthouse be removed to the northeast corner of Randolph and Nelson Streets in Lexington, Virginia, and shall the Board of Supervisors be permitted to spend $13,543,827 therefore?

And the people responded with a resounding “heck no.”

Yes: 2,067

No: 3,512

Surely, that was the end of it. The old courthouse restored to its past glory, the tax rate held steady and everyone living happily ever after must have been the result of the people speaking so loudly and clearly.

Well, maybe not. What actually followed was a new $29 million courthouse and parking garage. In the end the 22,000 citizens of Rockbridge had $21 million of debt and the 7,000 residents of Lexington $8 million. Taxes rose 15 percent from 2002 to 2005. The public was justifiably upset.

Public outrage focused, in part, on the supervisors’ failure to fully demonstrate the problems with the facilities, especially with security. They felt betrayed that their voiced opposition was completely ignored. And they were incredulous in learning, post-election, that what happened, could happen.

Rockbridge voters said “no,” but the problems remained. In response the local judiciary petitioned to have a court-ordered remedy. The authority and responsibility for a new facility was moved from the locally elected to the state appointed. The state’s overseer expected adherence to the Supreme Court’s “Virginia Courthouse Facility Guidelines.” The local governments evaluated restoring the aging structure. But in the final analysis they could not reasonably makeover the old building to meet the Supreme Court’s standards.

Our 1901 Augusta County Courthouse and our General District Courts building (jail cells included) will similarly require extreme makeovers to meet the same Supreme Court strictures. In the end we will be left with spending tens of millions of dollars either in Staunton or Verona. In Verona, we can build less expensively with a greater return on the people’s investment. We will have completed the long-term Board of Supervisors’ goal of consolidation. We will have improved public access, lowered continuing operational costs and given a commercial boost to one of our core communities.

If the referendum fails, I want to be sure it was because an informed electorate knew the issues and the potential consequences of “No” before voting, not after the fact. Isn’t this just good common sense?

Tracy Pyles of Churchville represents the Pastures District on the Augusta County Board of Supervisors. Email him at tcpylesjr@hotmail.com.